Also have never had a problem with Freemake Video Downloader (or indeed with any of their other offerings). Works great with lots of download options. You just need to take care during the install not to allow the "extras" to install also.

No, that's not the end of it. FireEye and others got lucky in that they were able to grab a copy of the cryptolocker database.

Look at CryptoLocker as V1 of a "product" that's only going to get better and better, both in the delivery techniques (which will likely continue to rely on social engineering) and in the encryption process. Decryption (without the DB) is all but impossible without quantum computing, and will become even more "impossibler" with longer keys.

There are enough people with inadequate controls and inadequate backups to keep these crime syndicates rolling in dough for a long time to come...

If your backup drive is sitting next to your computer it is sufficient if the primary computer HD crashes or has an unrecoverable virus. But it certainly ain't good enough for disasters such as fires. External backups are fine if combined with an offsite plan, but most people don't do this. That's one major advantage of cloud backup

RJ TextEd has integrated FTP as well. I moved to this editor years ago when it surpassed PSPad in terms of features (tho' I don't know how it compares today.) Powerful, customizable, frequent updates for bug fixes (few, if any, these days) & enhancements, no bundling of unwanted junk.

I don't have any speed or lag issues with Adblock on my desktop PC but am glad that you mentioned uBlock (the "µ" is really pretentious and inconvenient) since my 2 Gig Chromebook needed some serious memory trimming. It definitely helped (as did removing other extensions that weren't really necessary on the chromebook). If anyone else has a similar problem, don't forget to turn off Offline Google Drive, a real memory hog.

Tried & failed with two different email addresses. Never got a download link. Clicking on the emailed link just says "Your request could not be processed! A license for FORTE Basic has already been registered to your email address."

And you try to get to the "community" forum to see if other folks had problems and the link takes you to an htaccess login!

They certainly don't have things together. Sent them an email & will see if they respond.

NEVERMIND. Apparently the first email is just worded improperly. It's not a download link but just an email confirmation. They'll send you another email which does have a real download link and a key.

If you actually DO open up 100 tabs (!) you'll have a hell of a time figuring out how much memory Chrome actually uses since each tab is a separate process. It does use more RAM than FF but releases it more quickly when closing a tab.

That being said, Firefox is no memory lightweight either and has long suffered from memory fragmentation. Here's an interesting site that has monitored FF memory usage over the years https://areweslimyet.com/

At first I thought it naive that folks would upload a file with sensitive info to a free service, but then I realize I do this all the time with Google Docs. But still your warning is an important one...

The problem occurs because some companies install executables in the user's AppData directory. Google update even does this. CryptoPrevent works by preventing execution of such programs (as well as preventing executables with double extensions) but you'll have to unset the group policy temporarily to install such programs and then whitelist them when re-enabling CryptoPrevent.

"It's simply that, the more you use your PC, the more it gets bogged down with old files and unnecessary registry entries. And it's these which are largely responsible for the slow-down, rather than the upgraded OS."

Please stop perpetuating the MYTH that "unnecessary registry entries" slow down one's PC. It is simply NOT TRUE and Mark Russinovich stated as such way back in XP days.

What does this even mean, "slowing down the registry rather than slowing down the PC" ? That's gobblydegook. Show me credible studies that show any significant improvement in PC performance because of removing "unnecessary registry entries". Don't just repeat the myth.

Been using this for a while and it's great, although it sometimes gets confused as to the exact activity you are doing. You can also input an activity after the fact in case it misses something. Even though I am mostly a computer guy., I do a lot of walking a work through a warehouse and am pleased to see how much exercise I get just from that. No reason not to have this app! (Though I have talked to at least one person who is paranoid at "Google being able to track them with such detail".)

1) DISASTER RECOVERY: Free Macrium Reflect for periodic disk image backups to another disk.
2) BACKUP & RESTORE:: Now free Cobian for various daily backups to another disk. (Not being actively developed but still available and I haven't found anything else as full featured)
3) [Commercial reference removed]

Has anyone heard any good reviews for 360 Browser from the makers of 360safe antivirus? I know the antivirus is one of the best free available with great detection rates, but I'm curious about their web browser. Its suppose to be similar to IE only safer.

I was wondering if you guys at techsupportalert or others who are interested would be willing to check out both "VPN unlimited" and "tigerVPN" and see what they think about them as for the terms noted above. These are the two that I have taken the time to try out, but I am curious what your finding will lead. Thanks :D

I have to agree with Jorpho on this one. I have distro hopped for the last 2-3 years trying to find the right "Linux" that just worked.

Quote "Speed. In general, most Linux systems run many times faster than Windows."

This is the single statment that got me to write a reply. In my findings this is so NOT true. Yes Linux works, and now days it works generally well. Day to day use it is no quicker than a typical windows 7 setup on an average i5 machine.

Now this is just a view point - I have no proof of timings or fabulous screen shots of "Top" etc showing use of resources etc. Why? Because I dont care. I am not one of those who tweaks and fixes and tunes to get my machine to run using just 384k or some other arbituary low figure. i5 with 6gm Ram... what do I care if my machine uses 5.7Gb as long as it works and works well. If it starts to "lag" I usually say - ok what don't I realy need running and start to close things down and this happens more often with Linux than it does Windows. In my experience.

I too leave my machine on 24/7 so not fussed about start up times. I just want to be able to work/play - do multiple things at the same time and not spend hours on a forum trying to find a fix for something that gets broken when an update occurs.

For me... Windows 7 just simply works. It does everything I want. That said - I am a glutton for punishment and I love "playing" with Linux to see if I can conquer it. and conquer is the apt word (sorry couldn't resist that one). I have to fight - tweak - configure - groan - start again - until I get Linux the way I like it.... then BANG!!!! it all goes pear shaped after an update... Sigh!!!

If you simply want a machine to go on the internet and surf Facebook etc - do e-mails and a few documents then Linux can work for you. There are now some truly lovely Distros out there.

But when I need to do something and and do it NOW... I reboot to windows. OK rant over. Its a good informative article (if a little biased). A good example of why I always refer people To Gizmo's site. With the comments section you get to hear for and against, presented in a professional manner to allow you to make your own mind up. Keep up the Great work.
ps scuse typo's and gramatically incorrect punctuations etc :)

These are purely my choice as the ones that gave me least trouble installing and configuring to my needs. The fact that they needed minimal configuration make them my current working installed favourites.

The whole social networking is ruining this society. I joined, ignorantly, I later found out, that this is just another awful spike in f2f human contact. I followed these directions and it asks me if I want to upgrade, not downgrade. I don't do fb, follow me, titters or any of that awful damnation of society and anonymity. Pls. give decent and proper steps to remove this abomination from my google account. Tnank you.

I'd just like to say thanks for recommending Wise Registry Cleaner Free, as I have ran the tools provided with this software and have notice a dramatic increase in the speed in which my Windows 7 laptop starts up.

If anyone has slow start-up speeds, I'd recommend you to take full advantage of the tools in the Wise Registry Cleaner Free software before considering anything else.

The list is too old since 2017, and the desktop search tools list should be updated. Such as TextSeek, Lookeen, etc. new software should be included, those new ones imposes many new features.

TextSeek can perform search character-by-character with no omission, which is quite different from common indexing technology. Its UI is most like to Google Desktop Search tool, and render results like Google.

Lookeen can perform email content search and support common Mail System like Outlook.

I've recently switched from revo to geek. As stated by others revo does not support
64 bit in the free version. Geek seems to do a great job in removing the program and the associated entries.
What I do ,and I'm sure many others also do,is run ccleaner after uninstalling, especially a large program with tentacles scattered throughout your hard drive.
It's like those guys that follow the elephants at the circus cleaning up after them with a shovel and dustpan. ccleaner gets the rest of the garbage.

After using Freemake for quite some time,and being pleased with the results, I finally consented to an update that they had been nag screening about for months. Big Mistake. Along with the update came a vicious piece of malware/adware
called "Express Find". It caused a black rectangle to appear at the bottom center of my (FF) browser screen which protruded about 2" from bottom and about 4"wide. There was an "X" in upper right hand corner but it did not close the rectangle. When clicked it redirected my browser to some very shabby websites. (per WOT) . Got rid of it by running avast scan which picked it up and deleted it. Beware

Update:

Just ran an MBAM scan. It found and quarantined 15 items classified as "PUP's" all connected to "Express Find" although previous to this scan browser appeared to be running cleanly.

This "Unchecky" looked interesting and I went to the website to download.
I almost forgot to check with Virus Total but at the last second scanned
it before downloading. Result was 4 of 51 anti-virus engines deemed it as
malicious.

I know you guys always refer to scanning before downloading. Did you get the same results?

Love this little app. Simple, uncomplicated. Even a simpleton like me mastered it immediately.
Took note of mrmontgom comment above and will make sure I play back before closing windows or moving anything around although I do not understand his warning and would appreciate some elucidation on it.
Thanks rob.

I went to the website and I see that you create a message which is encrypted and protected by a password. Then what? Do you just look at it when you feel like? Can you send it to someone? How do you do that?
Either I'm very dense or I'm missing something. Please help.

I need some help from a linux expert.
While installing linux on my win 8 machine I accidentally wipes my win 8.0 system from the hard drive, Now I can only boot to linux using any media. HDD, dvd drive and usb drive. Nothing else will boot.
I posted this problem on the forum today and thought I would take the liberty of trying to contact you through this article.

Looks neat but when you click on download button on yo window website it redirects to cnet website which we all know is notorious for bundling open candy,etc with the program. Any alternative download sites?

Thanks for you help. Got it to run after changing .exe file to C directory and following toktok command suggestions.
Of course I forgot which command worked so I have to do it over again and make a note.

Downloaded the portable (no installer) version of this app.
Unzipped and attempted to execute. Avast blocked execution and gave
me a message that the file was infected with "DS#DynaGen||algo:"
MBAM however gave it clean bill of health.

That sounds rather benign but why would Avast actually block execution of the program and yet give it a clean bill of health per the virus total website? My question is, of course , rhetorical , but it's still a puzzle to me.

If you pass the 30 day limit to revert and wish to downgrade back to win 7 can I use my system image of 7 made just before upgrade? If so
do I use the win 7 or 10 recovery usb or can it be done after booting into win 10?

thanks for the tip re AirVpn. I had recently purchased a one month sub to ExpressVPN. Express works very well for me but is a little pricey($100 Yr vs $60 for Air). Both perform equally well as my main concern(besides privacy, of course) is download speed as I do a lot of bittorrent downloads. I will keep using both this month but probably decide on Air.
Express is a little more user friendly but I think I'd rather save the $40 per year.
Thanks again,

No mention anywhere of IP Vanish, After trying a handful of VPN's (Both paid & free), settled on IPVanish. It did not reduce my download sped and has been utterly reliable. It's about $80 a year (paid annually).

Signed up for the 30 day free trial. Very impressed wiih this software, Using it on 2 desktops with win 10 home 64 bit.
This program detects tracking cookies where mbam displays or deletes all cookies unless you go through a laborious sorting process
or uncheck the "cookie" box for each browser.
Is there any other freeware that isolates the tracking cookies for removal?

I want to give this a try. I'm a little confused about the process. Can I just burn this file directly to my flash drive without using a program such as "Rufus" to create a bootable drive? That seems to be the implication. Thanks in advance for any help

Rob:
Great little O/S, thanks.
Here's what happened with me. Downloaded Tails ,created bootable USB as instructed. I have 3 computers,all Acer . 2 desktop,1 laptop.
Attempted to boot Tails to my laptop ,got security lockout because the BIOS is UEFI. One of my desktop PC's is older with legacy BIOS,
Booted with no problem.
Changed my laptop BIOS to Legacy and I couldn't even boot to internal Windows 10. I fixed that problem but Tails will not boot to my PC's with UEFI BIOS.
What do you guys think?

I haven't tried this yet but I've been using an app called "FotoSketcher" This app is very versatile and produces dozens of special effects applied to photos,
Also is only an 8mb download vs 124mb for "Fresh Paint".

I do have "Unchecky" and have been using it for quite some time. My concern is ,I guess, the sheer volume of downloads simultaneously and if the program can screen them all. I'll try it out on my oldest pc first and create a restore point.

rhiannon,
You said :
"I've noticed an increase in page load times since I installed Trace, which is more than welcome on this slow internet connection."
I don't understand why an increase in page load times would be welcome. Did you mean a decrease?

In trying to use this app in firefox on the Washington Post website the following occurs:
I click on a story and immediately get a notification that covers about 1/3 of the screen saying I am using an ad blocker. I am using u-block origin. I turn off u-block on the site and still get same notification and can go no further. Any further actions I can so to remedy this? Thanks.

I may be missing something, but after going to multiple websites ,including the link in your article,I cannot find a free version of this app. Only a 30 day trial version appears to be available. I did find the portable version but that too is a 30 day trial.

Are you guy in cahoots with Google? You are praising this software that states one can delete ones personal data, but it is so deeply hidden I cannot find it. If you are interest in doing a service to you readers, then provide inks to where one can delete th stuff we don't want. If you don't want to be of service then continue to support Google and I for one am going elsewhere.

Hello Chiron, your articles are always fantastic, thanks very much for them!

Sorry me for my English but can you answer me one doubt, please? In the old article, with Comodo Firewall 5, I remember that there was a configuration that you needed to put something with * and other symbols. I remember that in the article you said that command was for blocking everything and to give 100% of protection. In this new Comodo Firewall 6, there are not more need to put this command? This command was put in the Defense+ tab if I'm not wrong.

Its really quite easy Ray if you just remember to localise your search by (most important) date to avoid irrelevant pages submitted long ago (most of the web) and to remember to use '+' '-' quote marks etc. Its all very logical. I often use the images section straight off....drag an image into the search box and be amazed. The recommended site, whatever its called(?) when asked "best widescreen tv 2013" earlier, the top article offered was written in 2007! By using the google tools provided at the top of the search page, I can home in on blogs, news, reviews, discussions, best prices, restrict dates, all within a fraction of a second. It fine tunes rather than spins off at tangents.

I'm not a google fan boy, far from it. but its hard to see how the featured site could cause anything but misinformation and frustration. You only get from the web a proportional response to the information you submit

Thank you so much! I have no idea at all what these instructions mean, but I copied everything word for word in your section "Input results into Deluge" and my Deluge app started downloading instantly. after performing really erratically. I can't even remember the last time my Deluge app had the same number in the "Downloading" and the "Active" boxes. This instruction page solves everything that was not working with Deluge.

I find this program one of the best free tools. Before, I thought I'd go with Backup Maker, Genie Timeline Free Edition, or Toucan. However, after reading comments a few readers pointed out some issue with Toucan (apparently, it crashes) and Genie Timeline. The others mentioned Areca Backup.
So, Areca Backup is free and very functional. How about its file validation feature, if there is any at all? I don't really understand how validation works to be honest. I'd be grateful if someone would explain that :)
In FAQ, I found some explanation:
"How does Areca detect modified or new files when incremental backups are chosen ?
Areca uses the file's size and last modification time to detect modified files. If one of these attributes is modified (whatever its value is), the file is flagged as modified.
Since v7.2.17, Areca can also inspect the file's content to detect modifications of its content (which is much slower than detection based on attributes) "
but I don't know if this is the same as validation.